Soon you can share your PC and Mac games legally with Steam

Usually, sharing software with friends or family members is a big no-no. Most software licenses restrict use to one machine, or sometimes to a single user. That’s especially true with games, where piracy is a big problem.

But apparently that’s about to change, at least for users of Steam, the online game management system offered by Seattle-based developer Valve. The company is about offer a beta version of a system for sharing games with family members and even friends.

Steam Family Sharing will let you authorize up to 10 devices at a time to play your games. Here’s how it will work, according to Valve:

Steam Family Sharing allows close friends and family members to play one another’s games while earning their own Steam achievements and saving their own game progress to the Steam cloud. It’s all enabled by authorizing a shared computer.

See a family member’s installed game that you want to play? Send them a request to authorize the computer. Once authorized, the lender’s library of Steam games become available for others on the machine to access, download and play.

If you prefer, you don’t have to wait for a friend or family member to request access to your games – you can set up a list of authorizations in advance.

There’s one downside, though: Two devices can’t play the same game at once. Here’s what happens if a friend you’ve authorized is playing one of your games, and you try to play the same title:

Though simultaneous usage of an account’s library is not allowed, the lender may always access and play his games at any time. If he decides to start playing when a friend is borrowing one of his games, the friend will be given a few minutes to either purchase the game or quit playing.

The beta begins in mid-September. If you’ve got a Steam account and you want to apply, you’ll need to join Steam’s Family Sharing group in its discussion forums. A lucky 1,000 will be granted early beta access.

This is a smart move by Valve, and could help reduce piracy. If you can legally play a game authorized by a friend, you’re less apt to seek the game by illicit means. In addition, the message a borrower gets when the lender wants to play a game in progress could turn that borrower into a buyer.

Steam is available for both Macs and Windows-based computers.

Update: Commenter JoeyC notes that the two-can’t-play-at-once restriction applies to your entire library, not just per game. From the Family Sharing FAQ:

CAN A FRIEND AND I SHARE A LIBRARY AND BOTH PLAY AT THE SAME TIME?

No, a shared library may only be accessed by one user at a time.

That means if I’ve shared my library with you, and I’m playing “Amnesia”, you can’t play the copy of “Arma” that’s also in my library.

Steam’s Family Sharing plan is very similar to a plan Microsoft originally discussed for the all-digital ecosystem initially planned for the Xbox One. That plan, whose details were always quite vague, was eventually scrapped when Microsoft backtracked on its game licensing plans. Still, Microsoft has been makingnoise about introducing a “hybrid” model sometime in the future, which would allow for sharing features on downloaded libraries while keeping disc-based games distinct and unshareable.